Miniature Painting by Aella13

Throne of Everblight Conversion: Planning

Original upload date: September 24 2013

It was at this point that I started planning my most ambitious project to date.

I heard other Legion players talking about how good The Throne is with my (at the time) favourite Warlock, Thagrosh, but I really didn’t like the original model. So during my design stage I made a tally of all the things that I like about the model and the things I hate while keeping in mind Privateer Press’s converting restrictions (must retain weapons, no other manufacturers, etc) and came up with this:

Tentacles: They have to stay as they are the beast’s main weapons.Sorceress: She’s fine.Toothy Maw: Gross, but it suits the monster.Metal Platform: Looks wicked cool.Weird Tower Shape: Why is it so tall? I don’t like his tubular look.Icky Brain Matter: Blargh. I don’t like the fleshy folds.

So I wanted a way to get rid of the tall shape and fleshy folds while retaining the tentacles, maw, platform and sorceress. I then realised that one of the reasons that I love the sorceress on the platform is that it reminds me of this:

It’s a Magus from the Warhammer Online game that I tried out years ago, modelled after GW’s Disc of Tzeentch. I love the Spellcaster on hovering disc look, so that’s the direction I decided to take. Now as for the beastie itself, the maw surrounded by tentacles reminds me of this:

It’s the Watcher in the Water from the Lord of the Rings. I like the idea of the maw emerging from a pool surrounded by the tentacles. But how will I put these two together? I could have the beast coming out of a pool in the ground while the sorceress floats overhead, but it may look like it’s reaching up to attack her. Then I had another idea:

This is from another game, RIFT, that I tried out when it went free-to-play. I love the idea of a portal opening up overhead and tentacles of an eldritch abomination reaching down…

So my first draft was: “The sorceress will be standing on the top of the Throne platform hovering above the base. Over her head will be a portal from which the tentacles and maw will be emerging downward. There are a couple of issues: the main one is that it will be top heavy so I will have to secure it very strongly to its base. Another is that I’m not sure yet what to make the portal out of. But anyway, that’s what I’m going to try, and no doubt the draft will be revised as I have further ideas.”